At first, I had a little difficulty finding websites that I wanted to include on my rollyo. I went in with the idea of creating a rollyo on ancient cultures (primarily Greek, Egyptian, and Roman and dealing w/ their history, art, architecture, belief systems , etc.) so when conducting searches I came up with a lot of wikipedia articles and about.com articles. Although it was informative, it really wasn’t what I was looking for. Finally, I ended up hitting on sites specifically dedicated to those particular aspects of those particular cultures I was looking for. I could see my rollyo being a useful tool, because in many ways it seem to act like a bloglines feed; basically information on the subjects you’re looking for are in an easy to find, organized place.

I found this to be an enjoyable little exercise. I really liked the comments feature that this site offered. Granted, Amazon.com has the same feature, but this site has more of a community feel to it (This is probably because Amazon is a commercially driven site, whereas this one is strictly for book lovers, who want to share their favorites) When choosing books to put on my list I noticed that High School really turned me off to reading: The reading against deadlines, the test taking in conjuction with, the 10 page paper about…these aspects totally turned me off to pretty much all of the “classics” I read in high school. Only The Great Gatsby is exempt and that is largely due to the fact that, my class listened to a book on tape of Gatsby in simply talked about the novel. No tests, no papers, simply reading (or in this case listening) to a book, for the sole purpose of reading and enjoying it.

I’m probably just really lame, but this was an annoyingly trying exercise. I thought I knew what I was looking for (I mean had the picture of it right in front of me) but it took me forever to find one of those newsfeed things. (I’m not even sure if I did the subscription to it right, although both things I thought I subscribed to, did show up on my feeds list, so that’s good) I didn’t find any of the search tools particularly helpful, all just maddeningly frustrating. I did find a decent feed that highlighted infusing pop culture into the library, so that was good, but all in all I’m not sad to see this exercise get checked off.

I had always noticed that little orange squiggly box at a bunch of the websites that I visit, but never knew what it was for, or quite frankly cared what it was for. With this exercise, I discovered what an incredible time saving tool RSS/Newsfeeds are. In many ways they serve as a Cliff’s Notes for websites..quickly and in a visually accessible way, showing you the important stories going on for the day. This would be helpful in everyday life because, like I mentioned earlier, it serves as a way to save time. Instead of visitting the multiple websites one frequents, all they have to do is go to their blogline and get all that information in 1 spot

When it comes to technology my motto is simple…I like it when it works for me, I despise it when it doesn’t. Specifically with regards to file sharing technology,( youtube, kazaa, ect) I find this to be incredible. At the risk of sounding cliche, these programs open up a huge catalog of music, concerts, and old tv shows that would have been entirely unattainable had it not been for these types of programs. I find some of the most obscure concerts thanks to youtube. A big drawback w/ technology is because new technological improvements come so quickly, it seems like things become obsolete in a hurry

That ladies and gentlemen is Justin Hawkins, former lead singer of The Darkness, the band that rocked so hard, it would make your eardrums explode. Do you like crunching guitar chords? Soaring guitar riffs? Bowel shaking bass lines? Steady, yet competent drum work. The Darkness combined all these elements and brought back all of the spectacle and bombast of the 70’s arena rock scene. Despite the fact that Justin loved his catsuits, his heroin, had a receding hairline at only 28 years old, and was perhaps one of the ugliest human beings on the planet, he could shred on the guitar like nobody’s business. For these reasons and these reasons alone, I feel it is worthy of him being mentioned in a blog

The 1 habit that is the easiest for me is teaching/mentoring. Not that I’ve had excessive experience in these areas, but in day to day dealings with patrons, I feel I’m a patient and willing listener, who can effectively communicate a solution to their problem and teach them the tools neccessary to be better equipped for the library

The habit that is the hardest for me is probably viewing problems as challenges.

The 1 thing I would like to learn about web 2.0 is Flickr usage and uploading videos on youtube.